Record-tying performance by Josh Smith leads Kings to victory

OTTAWA — A record-tying performance by Josh Smith led the Kingston Kings to a 17-11 win over the Gloucester Griffins Friday night in an Ontario Junior C Lacrosse League game at Earl Armstrong Arena.

Smith scored seven goals, matching the all-time Kingston junior record set in 1973 by Barrie Franklin and subsequently tied by Norm Williamson in 1974 and by Smith last July.

The 17 goals by the team matches the modern single-game high for Kingston since the junior club was revived in 2009.

Also prominent in the Kingston attack was a four-goal performance by Austin Maracle, a remarkable personal best in that in 26 games over three years before last night Maracle, employed mostly as a defensive specialist, had scored just twice. Three of his goals Friday night were unassisted, and one was scored while the Kings were shorthanded.

The victory, in the Kings’ second game in two nights, evened their record at 1-1, but it appeared an unlikely outcome early in the game, as Gloucester, with consecutive power-play goals 23 seconds apart, raced to a 4-1 lead by the time the game was barely four minutes old.

Kingston rallied, however, and the teams ended the period in a 5-5 tie. The Kings scored eight times in the second period, breaking open a 9-7 game with three goals in a span of two minutes in the middle of the period.

Kingston led 13-7 going into the third but the Griffins scored four times in the first half of the period to draw within two before Maracle’s fourth goal stemmed the tide. The Kings scored the final four goals of the game, two of them by Smith.

With two assists, Smith, from Willow Beach, Ont., via Queen’s University, finished with a nine-point game, just one off the team’s modern record for points in a game Smith already shares with Tim Bergin.

Curtis Smith had three goals and three assists for Gloucester, while Josh O’Connell had two goals and two assists and David Plotts a goal and three assists. Tye Simard, with two, Matt Lewis, Ryan Lafranchise and Josh Goodman scored the other Griffins’ goals.

The performance was in stark contrast to Kingston’s opening-night effort in Cornwall, when the Kings managed to score just twice in a 10-2 defeat.

Denzel Moran-Weekes got the goaltending victory in his first junior game. The 17-year-old from Nepean survived a shaky start, stood fast in the second period when he allowed just two goals on 18 shots, and weathered a 21-shot storm in the third.

For the second night in a row, the Kings were outshot, this time 53-44.

Kingston resumes play Thursday night, when the Kings will open at home against Gloucester. Game time at Centre 70 will be 8 o’clock.